What Chillies Can I Use In The US For Nigella's Recipes?

Our answer

Nigella has many recipes using fresh chillies (US spelling chiles), such as Jumbo Chilli Sauce (from KITCHEN). In the UK if it just says "red chillies" it means a medium heat chilli. Most common in the UK is the Dutch chilli pepper (sometimes called a finger chilli or Holland chilli). They are around 10cm/4 inches long and a bright red colour. These chillies have a heat range of 5,000-10,000 Scoville units. If you can't find this type of chilli pepper then a Fresno pepper or a red jalapeno pepper would be good substitutes.

If the recipe specifies "green chillies" then it means green jalapeno peppers. If the recipe calls for hotter chillies then these will always be specified, such as Thai bird's eye chillies. We would not suggest that these are used unless they are specified in the recipe, as they are significantly spicier than the Dutch chilles.